by: Noelle Child —
When does a wheelchair make you think of accomplishment instead of limitation? Perhaps when the wheelchair belonged to Governor of New York and longest-serving US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Visitors are encountering new perspectives at the Disability Rights Employment Awareness Month (D.R.E.A.M.) Exhibition at the Empire State Capitol Building in Albany, New York. The exhibition’s centerpiece, a wheelchair likely used by FDR during his time as Governor, shakes up lazy thinking at first glance. Paired with an intimate family photo — a rare glimpse of FDR with wheelchair in view — this universal symbol of disability takes on a new role. It challenges visitors to reject old associations with disability and connect to the value, strength, and potential of all people.
Created in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), the exhibition highlights the influential role of New York State and its people in the disability rights movement. Eight elegant panels of text and images share stories of several remarkable New Yorkers with disabilities who became agents of change. One example is Bernard Carabello, who survived childhood in a notorious institution before becoming a leader in the disability rights movement. Displays also explore national efforts, including the rough road to deinstitutionalization in the mid-1900s and critical national protests, such as the “Capitol Crawl,” that helped revolutionize perceptions of people with disabilities throughout the late 1900s.
Faithful to the inclusivity at the heart of D.R.E.A.M, the exhibition’s design aims to provide access to people of all mobilities and abilities.
“We always consider people with disabilities when designing exhibits, but it felt especially significant in this case,” says Joe Madeira, Director of Curatorial and Visitor Services. “We wanted to be sure to serve people with low vision who couldn’t read the text.”
One solution was audio. Visitors can choose to listen to the exhibition’s messages using either SoundStik® handsets or QR codes. The handsets also include hearing-aid compatibility to benefit visitors with both vision and hearing impairments. To help visitors with low vision locate audio access, Madeira placed handsets and QR codes in consistent locations and called out audio access points with high-contrast speech bubbles. The exhibition’s modular display stands and SoundStik® handsets can be reused for future exhibitions at the Capitol.
A portable version of the exhibition greeted attendees at New York’s first annual D.R.E.A.M. Symposium in the Empire State Plaza on Tuesday, October 4th. New York’s D.R.E.A.M. symposium was created to help educate employers and service providers on the many benefits of including people with disabilities in the workforce, especially in roles that go beyond minimum-wage jobs. It concluded with a virtual job fair on Tuesday, October 11th.
People with disabilities form the largest and most diverse minority in the US and in the world. This is also the only minority group that any of us could join at any point in our lives.
The Disability Rights Employment Awareness Month Exhibition is on view now through November 4th, in the Governor’s Reception Room on the second floor, Empire State Capitol Building, Albany, New York. Too far to travel? Visit https://empirestateplaza.ny.gov/dream to experience the exhibition online. Audio access is included there, too.
Also at the Empire State Capitol Building: Flag in the Map, an international exhibition from the Gilbert Baker Foundation that documents people around the world flying the original rainbow Pride Flag – in some cases at risk of arrest or attack. Flag on the Map is on view Monday, October 17 to December 31, 2022, in the Capitol Building’s East Lobby, 2nd Floor.
Learn more:
- About New York State’s commitment to disability rights and employment awareness in this ny.gov announcement
- About NDEAM’s 2022 theme, Disability: Part of the Equity Equation, the critical role of people with disabilities in the creation of a diverse and inclusive workplace today at the US Department of Labor Blog
- About the history of disability and disability advocacy at this virtual museum
